Sickel Mowing Help and Identification (pics)

This evening I was trying to mow a second cutting orchard grass with my 1947 2N and sickel bar mower. Just like it did on the first cutting, I would go 10 feet and get stuck. The cutters would plug. So, can the baldes be sharpened or should I get new ones? Should I get new gaurds? Any hints on how to sickel? Can anyone identify the sickel (been on tractor since new)?

I can tell you it is not a New Holland 450
the blades are faily easy to replace and sold with the rivets at Tractor Supply ten blades are about $7.00 bucks and a bag of rivets are about $8.00 bucks
remove the guide part with the points that fit over the blade grind off the old rivets use a punch to pop the old ones out.
I put my 50 lb anvil under the sickel bar and lined it up with the rivets pounded it flat with a ball peen hammer Easy to do easier with two people.
Good Luck

Hi I have never used a sickel mower on a tractor but I have many hrs on a mule drawn sickel mower and when it started filling up the guards it sometimes meant the mules were walking too fast and slowing down helped but normally it meant that the blade had to be slid out and a sharpening session was in order and things got better. Sometimes the sickel was too close to the ground and that would let wet grass weeds etc bunch up. BUT sharpening was the biggest help for that in my teen yrs with the old iron wheeled mower with the big ole gray mules pulling it. Their names were Jim and Jack. Devious

You change out your sections the hard way. Easy way is to lay the bar in a vise so the bar is on the jaw and the section between the vise grip area then whack the back of the section with a hammer. Off pops the rivet and then it is an easy pop with is left of the rivet out. Me I have switched to bolts on all my machine. Oh by the way this method is right out of a sickle mower manual I have

I have sold lots of mower knives and repaired many too. First thing I think I see is you don't have serrated knives. Serrated knives never need sharpened and cut lots better than slick knives.

It's tedious to replace the knives but it can be done in an hour or so. Put the blade section in a vice loosely pointing down with just enough loosenes to allow the knife to move. Set the back bar down on the vice jaws and strike the knife back with a hammer to shear off the rivets. Move on to the next knife till all are off the back rib. You can get a box of rivets with the different size of rivets needed to do a whole blade at most tractor places and maybe at TSC??

Place the rivet up through the back rib after all the old rivets have been driven out using a punch and held over the jaws of a vice. Need something like an anvil to brad the new rivets down firmly from the top of the blade. Be sure there is no gap between the blade and the back rib before you brad the new rivets. When you get them all installed the whole blade is going to be slightly curved from the rivets expanding the holes in the back rib. Just put it in the vice and gradually straighten it and reinstall the blade into the cutter bar. Don't cut a finger off installing the blade or removing the blade. It's easy to do. I've still got all ten of mine but sometimes I wonder how I managed to do it working on tractors and equipment all my life.

Zane

Make sure you get the same size knife sections as it originally had or you will never get it back together.

Exactly the same size. There are several different sizes sold.

Zane

You could have one of many problems. If it is out of time it will cause that problem. If the hold downs are not set tight enough and the sections have a gap between the guards and the sections that will cause one to clog. The angle it lays on the ground also can cause that problem and of course dull sections. The guards need to run with a sort of up angle so the hay is pull off easier

How tall is the grass?

How fast are you moving (gear)?

Is the lead set right?

All of these things will affect cutter performance whether the bar is in good shape or not.

Dean

The mower is either a David Bradley (Sears) or a Ford-Ferguson AEO 20 (made for Ferguson by David Bradley), knife blades are different than other Ford mower knife blades so you need to take one off for a sample.

Dean,

Grass is about a foot high.

We are moving in first gear.

What do you mean by lead?

Thanks

Old,

How would you know if it is out of time?

There is space between some of the gaurds and the balde. Those did tend to clog.

The guards are at the lowest setting, but are pointed upward.

Thanks

Timing on them is set by having the section about center in the guard both at the closes in and as far out as the bar goes. As for space between the guards and the sections that is not good and there is 2 ways to fix that. One is to tap the hold downs tighter and the other is to bend the guards up some. The guards need to be angled up about 15 plus degrees low is bad and higher most of the time is better. On all my sickle mowers I have them set so the angle is as great as I can get it

Ground speed is too slow. Mow in third gear with an 8N. Try second with a 9/2N.

Lead is the bar angle vis a vis tractor longitudinal axis. The bar must be set such that the tip of the bar "leads" the base of the bar. Check the operators manual for specs.

Dean

We were thinking the slower speed would work better when we tried it out. Will the faster gear speed make the sickel mower run faster?